The present invention relates to reinforced plasterboard. The term xe2x80x9cplasterboardxe2x80x9d will, for simplicity, be used throughout the specification to refer to a building material which is formed from any cementitious slurry resulting in a panel of indefinite length which will be then cut to the required sizes. The term xe2x80x9cpanelxe2x80x9d is intended in this specification to cover any type of wall, ceiling or floor component of any required size. Numerous proposals have been put forward in the past, many of them patented, relating to the construction of such plasterboard panels.
Typically, such plasterboard panels have utilised a gypsum or Portland cement slurry. Some of the existing proposals for plasterboard have included the introduction of a reinforcement into the cementitious slurry. This reinforcement has been proposed as comprising glass fibre sheets or fibres, for example.
The proposals for reinforced plasterboard to date have all suffered from various disadvantages, and in particular, a failure to provide a plasterboard which has superior strength to resist typical impacts which can result in a building in which the panel is used. For example, in a panel used as an interior lining in commercial and domestic buildings, it would need to be able to satisfactorily resist the forces of human impact over a substantial period of time.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a reinforced plasterboard and/or a method of producing same which will overcome or at least obviate disadvantages in such plasterboard or its method of production to the present time, or which at least will provide the public with a useful choice.
Further objects of this invention will become apparent from the following description.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a reinforced plasterboard including a first external layer of paper adjacent one side of a core of a cementitious material, at least one internal layer of a mesh reinforcement embedded within an opposite side of said core of cementitious material and a second external layer of paper immediately adjacent to said mesh reinforcement.
Preferably, the mesh reinforcement is in contact with the further layer of paper.
Preferably, the mesh reinforcement includes an open weave glass fibre mesh.
Preferably, the cementitious material includes gypsum plaster.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method of producing a reinforced plasterboard including providing a continuous feed of a cementitious slurry to spread over a first external layer of paper, a continuous feed of a second external layer of paper, a continuous feed of a reinforcing mesh so as to lie internally adjacent said second layer of paper, means for bringing said layers of paper, said cementitious slurry and said reinforcing mesh together to result in said cementitious slurry setting between said external layers of papers with said reinforcing mesh embedded on one side of said cementitious slurry and immediately adjacent said second external layer of paper.
Preferably, in the above method, the reinforcing mesh is in contact with said further layer of paper.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reinforced plasterboard and/or method of producing same, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Further aspects of this invention which should be considered in all its novel aspects will become apparent from the following description, given by way of example of possible embodiments thereof and in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.